Marius Hills: Holes in the Moon
Explanation:
Could humans live beneath the surface of the Moon?
This intriguing possibility was bolstered in 2009 when Japan's Moon-orbiting
SELENE spacecraft imaged a curious
hole beneath the Marius Hills region on the Moon, possibly a
skylight
to an underground lava tube.
Follow-up
observations by NASA's
Lunar Reconnaissance
Orbiter (LRO) indicated that the
Marius Hills Hole (MHH)
visually extends down nearly 100 meters and is several hundred meters wide.
Most recently, ground penetrating radar
data from SELENE has been
re-analyzed to reveal a series of intriguing second echoes --
indicators that the extensive
lava tubes exist under Marius Hills might extend down even kilometers and be large
enough to house cities.
Such
tubes could
shelter
a future Moon colony
from large temperature swings,
micro-meteor impacts, and
harmful solar radiation.
Potentially,
underground lava tubes might even be sealed to contain
breathable air.
These lava tubes
likely formed when lunar volcanos were active billions of years ago.
Pictured, the surface of
Marius Hills
region was captured in the 1960s by NASA's
Lunar Orbiter
2 mission, while an inset image of the MHH is shown from NASA's continuing LRO.
Several volcanic
domes are visible, while
Marius Crater is visible
on the upper right.
Authors & editors:
Robert Nemiroff
(MTU) &
Jerry Bonnell
(USRA)
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings,
and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris.
Specific
rights apply.
A service of:
LHEA at
NASA /
GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
